Turns out, so can good music — given the right environment. Lately, Dienel has been spending a good 40 hours a week on writing when she’s not touring, and she’s doing precisely what she once imagined herself doing — that is, everything. But she didn’t have to cross the country to find herself. All this hard work is in her nature.

“The big idea is that, eventually, you do well enough that you can finally stop working — but why would you want to stop working? You don’t want to work? You picked the wrong game.”

Zombie overdrive Pete Witham and the Cozmik Zombies are and are not exactly what you'd think. Sure, they're silly and ironic and probably wish it were 1954 all over again. But behind a bit of hokum lies a damn good band, more than a few smart turns of phrase, and an interesting contemporary turn on some long-standing forms of Americana: hopped-up rockabilly, syrupy country, swing, and Elvis-era rock and roll.

The Big Hurt: Aussie asses sued off MEN AT WORK — best known for their 1983 hit "Down Under" — have just had their pants sued off by a dead schoolmarm and her 78-year-old Girl Scout song.

Two great flavors "When I said that I wanted to use 'What We Do' as a single," Freeway explains, "people said it couldn't happen because it didn't have a hook. You know how the rest of that one goes."

Ivory and ebony Hip-hop will never be post-racial. Pigment plays a major role at every level, and that's not always a bad thing.

Arty crashers Fucked Up's career is a game of dares they're winning. Over the past few years, the Toronto band have trashed a bathroom on an MTV broadcast, played a 12-hour set in a NYC boutique, reeled in random notables like David Cross, Bob Mould, and Nelly Furtado for Christmas charity singles, landed their vocalist Pink Eyes appearances on Fox News, and won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.

Rock in a hard place That little twang of cognitive dissonance you feel in your brain when someone refers to a “Boston rock scene” is perfectly normal.

Swede heart Few contemporary singers achieve as perfect a confluence of sound and image as Sarah Assbring. It's deeply reassuring to hear mournful, stylized '60s pop coming out of a melancholic beanpole who resembles a recently bereaved Edie Sedgwick.

Interview: Skeletonwitch’s Scott Hedrick You know you've made it to rock’s Big Time when interviewers catch you as you're boarding a jet, instead of loading the tour van. And although Athens, OH's Skeletonwitch didn’t happen to be boarding their own Iron Maiden-like 747 when we reached them, they’ve got too much going on these days to make it all happen on four wheels.

BOSTON PRIDE WEEK: OFF THE MAP | June 07, 2010 We may seem a little cranky, but us local gayfolk just love a parade, and we’re actually heartened by this annual influx of brothers and sisters from every state of New England and every letter of our ever-expanding acronym.

THE NEW GAY BARS | June 02, 2010 If I may channel the late, great Estelle Getty for a moment: picture it, Provincetown, 2009, a dashing young man with no discernible tan and an iffy T-Mobile signal languishes bored upon the sprawling patio of the Boatslip Resort.

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI | BEFORE TODAY | June 01, 2010 If the gradual polishing of Ariel Pink’s sound — and it’s not all that much more polished — puts his loyalists at odds with his albums, I count that as good news.

MORE THAN HUMAN | May 26, 2010 It’s hard to talk about Janelle Monáe when your jaw’s fallen off.